Jindal Touts "Accomplishments" as Campaign Resumes

The campaign hiatus is officially over, with Governor Bobby Jindal leaving the state, again. He resumed his chase for the Republican presidential nomination, appearing on three national news shows Wednesday.

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“There’ve been 3 different polls in the last week, showing that we’re on the move in Iowa,” Jindal said during his stint on CBS “This Morning”.

He also showed up on two Fox News programs Wednesday, as that network announced they were adding a minor league debate prior to their major league event August 6th. The big league forum will feature the top ten GOP contenders for president. Jindal will be playing in the minors.

When CBS asked about the all-star players -- like Trump, Bush and Huckabee -- Jindal was dismissive of the poll numbers putting them atop the leaderboard.

“Right now you’ve got a lot of candidates that are willing to say extreme things, outlandish things to get on TV, to get in the debates. We’re not doing that.”

But Jindal, who is polling nationally at 1.3 percent, was also asked about his low approval ratings here at home.

“I’d ask people to actually look at what we’ve accomplished in Louisiana,” Jindal said, rather than directly acknowledging his unpopularity. Instead, he offered his version of his accomplishments.

“We’ve cut our budget 26-percent; over 30-thousand fewer state bureaucrats than the day I took office. We’ve got statewide school choice.”

Those budget cuts were necessitated by revenue deficits, which also prompted many of the state worker layoffs. In addition, the privatization of the Charity Hospital system meant thousands of state health care workers were let go; nurses, not exactly “bureaucrats.”

Jindal also claimed, “With more people working than ever before before in my state’s history, we have proven we can shrink government and grow the private sector economy.”

Let’s compare that to June data, released by the Louisiana Workforce Commission earlier this week.

Louisiana’s unemployment rate is currently 7-percent. The national rate is 5.5 percent.

Nearly 1.7 million Louisiana residents are currently employed in the private sector, which the LWC says is actually the third highest number in Louisiana history.

And, at the height of summer vacation season, leisure and hospitality sectors were shedding workers -- more than a thousand each, statewide.

“I’ve done that in Louisiana. I can do that in D.C.,” Jindal said, proudly.